


Waiting

by coffeebuddha



Category: Calvin & Hobbes
Genre: Angst, Comment Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-25
Updated: 2012-03-25
Packaged: 2017-11-02 11:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/368740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeebuddha/pseuds/coffeebuddha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a long time--maybe minutes or maybe years; he isn't sure since tigers don't tell time the same way humans do--Hobbes stays curled up at the foot of Calvin's bed, waiting for him to come home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gypsydancergirl](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=gypsydancergirl).



For a long time--maybe minutes or maybe years; he isn't sure since tigers don't tell time the same way humans do--Hobbes stays curled up at the foot of Calvin's bed, waiting for him to come home. There are voices in the house, always hushed, and sometimes late at night Calvin's mom or dad will come into the room, though never at the same time.    
  
His mom wanders, restless, touching fingertips to everything. A sock on the floor, a picture on the wall, a dinosaur toy on the shelf. She barely looks at him, quickly tearing her eyes away as if the sight of him hurts. She cries, and Hobbes wants to help mend her the way she mended him every time he was hurt, but he can't go to her and she won't come to him.   
  
His dad...his dad just sits on the bed with his head bowed and his hands tightly clasped between his knees. He doesn't look, doesn't touch, doesn't cry. Just sits, and somehow that's worse.   
  
And Hobbes waits, dreaming of the adventures they'll have when Calvin comes home. He waits through the dust building thick in his fur. He waits as the house slowly comes back to life. He waits when the midnight visits dwindle and then stop almost completely. They pack up the room around him, everything else confined to cardboard boxes, and then set him on the top shelf of the closet in between spare linens and a box labeled 'Memories', and still he waits. 


End file.
